He Meant Well

A couple of hours after writing the following post, I reread it and was struck by how snotty it sounded. I was going to delete it, but then I noticed that Brenda had left a comment. Hmm, I guess I'll just leave it and hope that you all will give me the benefit of the doubt in regards to my snottiness level. I really did appreciate that Jeff wanted to do something nice for us AND I asked him to preview and "okay" the post before I posted it. So here goes:

My dear, sweet, thoughtful husband wanted to surprise me and the kids recently. He had heard rave reviews about a restaurant and saved up his "allowance" to take us there. (Jeff and I both get a bit of money from his bimonthly paychecks to spend on whatever we want.)

Knowing that it was a pricey place and that he is married to a woman who still wears this watch

(it works, okay?), Jeff turned to me in the car as we pulled into the parking lot and asked, "Can you please just enjoy yourself and not think about how much this meal is costing me?"

I felt my upper lip involuntarily twitch as I promised that I would.

To avoid the certain lawsuits that would follow because of the vastness of this blog's readership (It has four followers. (Three of whom have only made one comment ever! (I hope they follow Jesus more closely than they follow As We Wend Our Way.))), I will wisely rename the restaurant as The Money Pot (ahem) instead of using its actual moniker.

Through the heavy front doors we walked and approached the smartly dressed host behind the reservation desk. None of us was dressed very nicely so I felt compelled to ask if we were breaking their dress code. (I have a vivid childhood memory of being expelled from a restaurant in New York because we were not suitably attired.) He smiled and assured me that our vestments were perfectly acceptable. (Apparently, money is money.)

We were quickly seated and the whole unusual eating process was explained to us. You see, this was a fondue restaurant and we (at that point) were fondue-newbies.

Wanting the whole experience, Jeff ordered appetizers, a main course and dessert. I did my best to keep my promise to simply enjoy myself, though I thought I'd need sutures to repair my bitten tongue while looking at the prices on the menu.

I won't bore you with a play by play of our three hour meal (it takes a while when you are cooking your own food, one little piece at a time).

After the bill was paid, I watched a little piece of Jeff's soul die when I mentioned, "You could have bought three video games instead of that one meal."

The good news is: we weren't that impressed and therefore will never be tempted to go back. The bad news is: Jeff was not able to just enjoy himself and not think about how much the meal was costing him.

To sum things up: Buy yourself a crockpot, google some fondue recipes and enjoy a much cheaper experience at home several times over. Sure, the food was fresh and good, but no meal is worth the cost of two weeks of groceries.